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Click on an icon to see that writer's full list of articles
 

 
Phil Roeland
Expert analysis from an old Thailand hand


 

Steve Schertzer
The bad boy of EFL
Matt Smith
For in-depth teaching and classroom topics

 
Ken May
Once our man in Korea - now our man in Ayutthaya


 

Jason Alavi
An expert on Thailand's ever changing TEFL scene

 
Steve Crawford
Ajarn.com's man in the know.
Tony Dabbs
Ajarn.com's resident health insurance guru

 
Geoff Richards
The man in Isaan

    Ben Finklestein
   The Thailand Foodie


 
William Blake
Our resident bard - waxing lyrical
Tom Tuohy
Writer and author of 'Watching The Thais'
 

 
Phil Roeland

2004

October 2004
Teaching Kids - the heaven and the hell
November 2004
The story of one man and his visa run - doing it the Penang way!
December 2004
This month Phil talks us through a week in the life of an English teacher.

2005

January 2005
A somewhat Monty Pythonesque look at life inside the classroom
February 2005
'Wishes' (Reflecting on the Thai TESOL conference)
March 2005
Clock, peanut, frog - or the problematic pronunciation of many Thais
April 2005
Sit ! Fetch ! Roll over ! (basic Thai commands for teaching children)
May 2005
Boom, Bomb and Bambam didn't like Beer and Porn
June 2005
Never mind fluency, here comes the grammar teacher!
July 2005
A Bit of Culture Part One
August 2005
A Bit of Culture Part Two
September 2005
TOEFL Woes
October 2005
Whinging Farangs
November 2005
The Magical Land Where Students Cannot Fail Exams
December 2005
Rote Learning and Thai Schooling

2008

January 2008
Goodbye 2007, Welcome 2008
February 2008
Ways to improve Thai education
March 2008
How to motivate students
April 2008
Bangkok Getaways (1) Kanchanaburi
May 2008

My Songkran Escape
June 2008
Back to School
July 2008
Ignorance or arrogance?
August 2008
Bangkok Getaways (2) Lopburi
September 2008
Goodbye Thailand
October 2008
Bangkok getaways 3 - Phetburi
November 2008
Vietnam: Failed. Cambodia: Passed
December 2008
Interviewing Foreigners
 

2006

January 2006
How to improve your English!
February 2006
Do they learn anything at all?
March 2006
My Teacher is a Computer
April 2006
Person of Odd Jobs
May 2006
Water Wars
June 2006
The Filipino Issue
July 2006
How to Land a Job: The Very Basics
August 2006
Holiday in Thailand - Singing the Praises of Hua Hin
September 2006
Rubbish! (please keep Thailand clean)
October 2006
Where is Brian - the search for a missing teacher
November 2006
Thai news - funnier than comedy
December 2006
Teachers and Textbooks - a love hate relationship

2007

January 2007
Thailand 101 - a 101 things you perhaps didn't know
February 2007
Does a degree make a good teacher?
March 2007
Gogo Loves Neeps and Tatties
April 2007
Songkran getaways
May 2007

Belated April Fool's Jokes
June 2007
I Go to Shopping - frequent Thai mistakes (1)
July 2007
He sick - frequent Thai mistakes (2)
August 2007
Full-time teacher, part-time thief
September 2007
An Inconvenient Truth
October 2007
Sightseeing in Bangkok
November 2007
Using the Internet to improve your English
December 2007
Land of a million elephants

2009

January 2009
2008 - A Year to Forget!
February 2009
The growing pains of the EFL industry
March 2009
The Ideal Teacher
April 2009
Making the Move
May 2009
Things to do before you die
June 2009
ESL Printables
July 2009
The Ideal Student

Steve Schertzer

2004

September 2004
Newbies fresh off the boat don't you just love 'em?
October 2004
Advice that you can truly use! Don't listen to those barstool experts.
November 2004
The seven habits of highly effective language schools.
December 2004
For his 'Christmas special' Steve comes back with a new image and tells us the 'real' reason he first came to Thailand

2005

January 2005
Where Children Used to Play
February 2005
The Thailand TESOL Conference and Cyber Snake-oil Salesmen
March 2005
ESL teachers as mentors and heroes (part one)
April 2005
Teachers as Mentors and Heroes, (Part two.) or, "No Fries With That!" ESL Teachers and the Double Whopper With Cheese Index.
May 2005
We're Not Just Another Brick in the Wall
June 2005
Why Don't We Ever Learn? ESL Teachers, Bar Girls, and the Sex Industry.
July 2005
"We Work For The Room": - ESL Ghosts of the Past, Unprofessionalism, and the Vast Wasteland of Human Filth.
August 2005
Boredom in the ESL Classroom: What Every Teacher, Student, Administrator, Supervisor, and Director Should Know.
September 2005
"I Want Your English---- And Nothing More!" (Human Beings First, English Teachers Second.)
October 2005
Touch Their Hearts, and Their Minds Will Follow
November 2005
The TESOL Diaspora: Making The Outside World A Home
December 2005
The Flame of Hope, The Optimistic Goodbye, and Our Living Legacy.

2008

January 2008
English Teachers, Sonny's Outcry, and
Finding the Poetry
February 2008
My Tears and Your Legacy: A Letter to President-Elect Lee Myung-bak.
March 2008
Outsourcing in the TEFL Industry:  Not Just for Blond-Haired Blue-Eyed Wonders Anymore.
April 2008
Understanding culture or the CULTure of understanding
May 2008
Bananas and Condoms: How Some EFL Teachers Are Attempting to Proselytize the Flock.
July 2008
"Honor Thy Mother and Thy Father":  Family, Redemption, Being a Man, A Priceless Gift, and Life's Greatest and Most Painful Lesson.
September 2008
The Purpose Driven Teacher: Self-Motivation and the Teacher's Heart.

2006

January 2006
The Teachers and Learners as ONE: Towards a New Theology of TEFL
February 2006
Coming home just ain't what it used to be
March 2006
How Low Can Language School Directors Go? A Family Tragedy.
April 2006
Noble Warriors and the Culture of Irresponsibility: A Korea Story (Part One.)
May 2006
Noble Warriors and the Culture of Irresponsibility: A Korea Story (Continued)
June 2006
Caring Teachers or Kinky Teachers? Corporal Punishment in Public Schools.
July 2006
"We Don't Learn Like That!" Arrogance at the Top and the Politics of Language Schools.
August 2006
The Failure of Communicative Language Teaching as a Method of Second Language Acquisition.
September 2006
From Boulder to Bangkok: Thailand at a Crossroad.
October 2006
The Deep Bow And The Silent Fart: Where Does Respect For Teachers Actually Come From?
November 2006
The Courage To Be Fair and Honest, And The Intelligence To See The Big Picture
e
December 2006
Taking Back the Profession: Getting Rid of the ESL Riff-Raff

2007

January 2007
The Politics of Babopalooza: The Joke Is On Us.
February 2007
Racism in the TEFL industry - The Hines Ward effect
March 2007
Teacher as leader
May 2007
Insensitive Foreigners at a Sensitive Time
June 2007
Delusions of The Lowly and The Mediocre
July 2007
Losers to the Right of Me, Morons to My Left: Why I'm Quickly Becoming TEFL's Number One Enemy
August 2007
You Are The Solution: What Foreign English Teachers Don't Want To Hear.
September 2007
Creating Classroom Culture: Cultivating Universal Values and Striving For Excellence
October 2007
Dopey Foreigners and Mentally Deficient Koreans. (Part One, "The Perfect Storm.")
November 2007
Dopey Foreigners and Mentally Deficient Koreans: (Part Two, "Not In My Classroom!")

2009

January 2009
The TEFL Industry - A rotting, putrid, stinking corpse.
March 2009
When in Rome - DON'T do as the Romans do!
May 2009
The 3-4-3 Principle
June 2009
The Woman of the World
 


Matt Smith
    William Blake
2006

December 2006
So who speaks English well?

2007

January 2007
Fishing in Isaan
February 2007
Some ruminations on curriculum development
March 2007
Levisiting the Plobrems with ‘R’ and ‘L’
April 2007
The ‘Dog and Pony Show’ - Demonstration Lessons in the Korean Public Education System
May 2007
Keep Your Eyes On the Ground – Amateur Archaeology in Isaarn
June 2007
Phrasebook Learning - is it letting the Koreans down?
July 2007
How I came to agree with Alison Empey
August 2007
Hey! Did you plan what you were going to write before you wrote it? Doesn’t look that way to me.
September 2007
If Miniskirts Were Shorter
October 2007
The Burden of Being Fun
November 2007
Mastering the Art of Description
December 2007
Flea in your ear

2008

January 2008
Teaching the Chinese in Thailand
February 2008
Sick of eating whitebread?
March 2008
Some further unfurling of the Chinese situation
April 2008
Trees.....or the lack thereof
May 2008
White or Wrong
May 2008
Extra Column
June 2008
First day on the job? - have them make a name card.
July 2008
Yes, but it is education........
August 2008
Culture in the English Speaking World
September 2008
Culture Revisited
October 2008
CLT again
November 2008
On Reading
December 2008
Long-tailed Boating

2009

January 2009
Teaching at my university - what's it like?
February 2009
The word 'farang'
March 2009
The root of all evil?
 


Steve Crawford

2009

May 2009
A new academic year dawns
June 2009
An unexpected conversation

 


Jason Alavi



May 2008
The new teacher licensing regulations
July 2008
New teacher regulations update
August 2008
Latest news from the TCT
September 2008
A glimmer of hope
October 2008
Why do teacher agencies have such a negative image?
November 2008
The flipside of teacher agencies
December 2008
Rules of what NOT to do and how NOT to behave
January 2009
What it takes to start your very own language school
February 2009
And it's goodnight from me


Geoff Richards


January 2009
Isaan Insights
February 2009
Thailand vs Indochina
February 2009
The Value of Learning Groups
February 2009
All About Isaan Folk
March 2009
Finding work in Isaan and a basic model for teaching kids
April 2009
Why the global economic crisis probably won't hit Isaan
May 2009
Vegetarian eating in Isaan and being a business English teacher
June 2009
A 360 degree approach to teaching TOEFL and IELTS and Edutainment is back!
July 2009
Repetition: an argument about what students really need and "writing your own readers"
 


Tony Dabbs


2008

September 2008
Work permits and health insurance
October 2008
Health insurance basics in Thailand

2009

February 2009
The life insurance health insurance option
March 2009
Changes to the ajarn health insurance application form
April 2009
Where's Santa Claus?
May 2009
Keeping the money jar filled up
June 2009
What are you getting?
July 2009
Trying to understand medical insurance


 

 

2007

July 2007
T'was a dark and cliched night
August 2007
The Isaan Spirit
September 2007
Homage to Bad English
October 2007
Madame Loneliness and I hit the streets
November 2007
Abandon all logic ye who dare enter here
December 2007
Blake's theory of unnatural selection

2008

January 2008
New Year Best Sellers List: Isaan
February 2008
Things are not always as they seem
March 2008
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Ajarn
April 2008
What do women want?
May 2008
Death Rides Pillion
June 2008
Repetition and the Ancient Art of Stuffing Up
August 2008
Burma: A Tragedy in One Billion Parts
September 2008
Rocky but Real Relationships
October 2008
Lust in the dust
November 2008
The Voyage (William Blake waxes lyrical)

2009

February 2009
The Taking of Responsibility 1-2-3
 


Ben Finklestein


2009

February 2009
Epicurean Guide to Thailand
March 2009
The best fried pork with holy basil
May 2009
Red ant egg omelet
July 2009
Sukhumwit Nights - street food
 


Ken May


 

2004

October 2004
Korea's EFL Roots and early impressions
November 2004
Dong Chims and Dried Squid
December 2004
Anarchy in the S.K - Ken gets to grips with the karaoke microphone

2005

January 2005
Ken takes us inside the staffroom of a typical Korean 'hogwan' school
February 2005
Lost in Transformation - Korea's Tourist Industry
March 2005
How the ugly American ate the ugly duckling
April 2005
Expatriate Waves
May 2005
Thirty Minutes of a Thirty Day Visa
June 2005
Are you certified? One man's brilliant account of finding his way through the TEFL course minefield.
July 2005
Sweet Spastic Silly Swarms
August 2005
The Madness to the Methods
September 2005
Legendary Scams, Blacklists, and the Midnight Run
November 2005
Ken's back with a brand new topic - Read the first installment of 'Ayutthaya Island'
December 2005
Leading My Students Into Hell

2006

January 2006
To start the year off Ken focuses on a few eco-tours his students have been doing for his class. Both tours are based on rivers in the Ayutthaya province
February 2006
This month Ken writes about the rebirth of Ayutthaya after the Burmese invaded in 1767. He had students interview somebody who was over the age of 65. Based on these biographies, his class charted out Ayutthaya's more recent history from 1767 to 2006.
March 2006
Skeletons Splitting the Sky
April 2006
Unseen Thailand: Klong Takian
May 2006
Eating Limes in Disneyland - an hilarious look at the differences between British and American English.
June 2006
Cheaters and Copycats: Text Messages and Talking Dicks
July 2006
Where it All Came From: A Short History of Thai Education
August 2006
You Will Always be an Outsider
September 2006
The end (sort of)

2008

September 2008
Take a seat at the cafe
October 2008
Rising sun, helping hands
November 2008
Carried away by modern waves
December 2008
What's black and white and read all over?

2009

June 2009
Lost stories


 


Tom Tuohy

 

2009

May 2009
Teaching Discursive or Creative Writing
June 2009
To Queue or not to Queue?
July 2009
What’s the best and the worst class you’ve ever taught?

 


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